SOMETHING bloody is going on in Verona. From the lurid red glow at the beginning to the tangle of bodies at the end, Peter Martins’ “Romeo + Juliet” is a brutal tale. Though it hooks you in the end, it has more dancing than magic.

Martins puts a lot of dancing in, but sometimes acting would express more than a dance step. Acting isn’t the house specialty; the NYCB dancers mostly rely on instinct and presence rather than training.

With her stork legs and flyaway blond hair, Sterling Hyltin makes Juliet a petulant, willful girl. Her Romeo, Robert Fairchild, was a big, wholesome boy but oddly conceived — he was a wimp and worrywart at first, and then a sociopathic killer who murdered Tybalt and bedded Juliet right after.

Others were more successful. Georgina Pazcoguin’s Nurse was funny, detailed and empathetic. As Mercutio, Daniel Ulbricht astounded the audience with some jumps that were part ballet, part kung fu.

Fairchild and Hyltin gained our sympathies by the end, mostly on adrenaline, but there’s an alternate cast that has better actors and fills in the blanks. (The Juliet in that cast, Kathryn Morgan, is ballerina material.)

But you can see Hyltin and Company on television tonight at 8, when “Live From Lincoln Center” brings the ballet to PBS on Channel 13.